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The Collection of Henry and Phyllis Brightman
Lot 45
Five Framed Silk and Linen Needlepoint Samplers Northeastern United States, dated 1767-1839
2 – 12 August 2025, 12:00 EDT
Online, Skinner Marlborough, MassachusettsSold for US$3,328 inc. premium
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Elizabeth Muir
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Amy Griffin
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Paul O'Hara
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Five Framed Silk and Linen Needlepoint Samplers
Northeastern United States, dated 1767-1839
This group of band samplers was made over seventy years, representing the work of girls from New Jersey to northeastern Massachusetts. Some historical and regional distinctions are clear. The smaller, densely worked sampler of 1767 uses material more conservatively than the larger 19th-century examples. No two samplers have the same border pattern, which can often indicate local preferences and even specific schools. But perhaps more astonishing are their similarities: the arrangement of text in registers, divided by patterned bands of waves, checkers, and diamonds, above outdoor scenes replete with plants and animals, all contained in a formal border and tidily hemmed edges. Samplers represent the importance of continuity and precedent in the education of young girls, whose fundamental objective was literacy.
The lot comprises:
One silk on linen sampler worked in satin, eyelet, tapestry, queen's stitch, and cross-stitch, signed Rebekah Coffin, born 1 November 1754, Newbury, Massachusetts, 1767 (sight) 16 1/8 x 11 1/8 in.
One silk on linen embroidery picture worked in satin, queen's, counted-thread, and cross-stitch, signed Catherine Shetzer, March 1810 (sight) 25 x 21 3/4 in.
One silk on fine linen sampler worked in satin, eyelet, tapestry, queen's, and cross-stitch, signed Rachel W Vail (1821-60), Plainfield, New Jersey, 3 March 1831 (sight) 17 x 15 5/8 in.
One silk on linen sampler worked in counted thread and cross-stitch, signed Catherine Eliza Berry (1818-52), student of Mrs. M.B. Dow, Acquackanonk Township, New Jersey, 183[8] (sight) 17 1/4 x 16 3/4 in.
One silk and linen sampler worked in satin, tapestry, and cross-stitch, signed Adah J. Arnold, Gloucester, Rhode Island, 4 July 1839 (sight) 13 x 18 1/4 in.
This group of band samplers was made over seventy years, representing the work of girls from New Jersey to northeastern Massachusetts. Some historical and regional distinctions are clear. The smaller, densely worked sampler of 1767 uses material more conservatively than the larger 19th-century examples. No two samplers have the same border pattern, which can often indicate local preferences and even specific schools. But perhaps more astonishing are their similarities: the arrangement of text in registers, divided by patterned bands of waves, checkers, and diamonds, above outdoor scenes replete with plants and animals, all contained in a formal border and tidily hemmed edges. Samplers represent the importance of continuity and precedent in the education of young girls, whose fundamental objective was literacy.
The lot comprises:
One silk on linen sampler worked in satin, eyelet, tapestry, queen's stitch, and cross-stitch, signed Rebekah Coffin, born 1 November 1754, Newbury, Massachusetts, 1767 (sight) 16 1/8 x 11 1/8 in.
One silk on linen embroidery picture worked in satin, queen's, counted-thread, and cross-stitch, signed Catherine Shetzer, March 1810 (sight) 25 x 21 3/4 in.
One silk on fine linen sampler worked in satin, eyelet, tapestry, queen's, and cross-stitch, signed Rachel W Vail (1821-60), Plainfield, New Jersey, 3 March 1831 (sight) 17 x 15 5/8 in.
One silk on linen sampler worked in counted thread and cross-stitch, signed Catherine Eliza Berry (1818-52), student of Mrs. M.B. Dow, Acquackanonk Township, New Jersey, 183[8] (sight) 17 1/4 x 16 3/4 in.
One silk and linen sampler worked in satin, tapestry, and cross-stitch, signed Adah J. Arnold, Gloucester, Rhode Island, 4 July 1839 (sight) 13 x 18 1/4 in.
Footnotes
Provenance
Rachel Vail sampler purchased from Paul D. Wesley, Mount Bethel, New Jersey.
Catherine Berry sampler purchased from Mrs. Cora R. Decker, Rutherford, New Jersey, 6 June 1968.
Adah Arnold sampler purchased from Kris Olson, Providence, Rhode Island.
Literature
For Newbury, Massachusetts, samplers contemporaneous with Rebekah Coffin's work, see Hannah Johnson's 1768 Sampler in Ethel Stanwood Bolton and Eva Johnston Coe, American Samplers (New York: Dover, 1973 [1921]), plate 23 opp. p. 67; Srah Toppan's 1756 sampler in Glee F. Krueger, A Gallery of American samplers: The Theodore H. Kapnek Collection (New York: E.P. Dutton, 1978), fig. 19 p. 24.